


It's No Secret (That He Likes You)

by whispered_story



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, First Time, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 18:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4756358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whispered_story/pseuds/whispered_story
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared has a secret admirer at the office and he's determined to find out who it is. [reposted, first posted on livejournal 23/4/2010]</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's No Secret (That He Likes You)

They have a tradition at their office. Every Valentine's Day they give each other anonymous presents. Sandy is the one who's organized it the last few years, mainly because she loves Valentine's Day (she's apparently married to the most awesome man ever and sickeningly happy and thinks everyone should feel loved on Valentine's Days) – everyone gives her the gifts and cards they want to give someone and she comes in early on the fourteenth and leaves the presents on their desks. It's kind of nice, even if Jared secretly hates Valentine's Day because let's face it, it's just another day to feel depressed about being single or to get disappointed when your partner forgets the day even exists. He still gives presents to pretty much everyone at the office he ever talked to, because he's always worried one day someone will end up without a present and wouldn't that just suck? He's pretty sure Sandy wouldn't let that happen, but you never know. So Jared always buys a bunch of chocolates and cards and Sandy always gives him the most adorable, fond look and tells him he's the sweetest guy ever.

This year, Jared's desk is littered with presents. It's not exactly uncommon because Jared always makes sure he's nice to everyone and, not to come off as conceited, he's pretty sure he's one of the most well liked colleagues ever. And yeah, getting a truckload of candy and sweet cards makes Valentine's Day a little bit better. 

But this year, there's also a huge bouquet of roses - the _'oh my god, they must have cost a fortune'_ kind of huge. They're red and admittedly beautiful and Jared's convinced the whole office smells like them. And really, who buys roses for a guy? 

"Somebody sure likes you," Sandy says with a giggle, appearing at Jared's side.

Jared whips around and gapes at her. "Who are they from?" he asks.

Sandy zips her mouth with a grin. "Anonymous, remember?"

"Sandy. Come on." He gestures at the flowers. "This is not a _'hey, it's nice working with you'_ present. At least give me a hint."

Sandy shakes her head and chuckles. "Can't do. It'd be against the rules." 

She pets his arm and leaves.

Jared sighs and sits down at his desk, staring at the flowers helplessly. 

"There's a card," Sandy says ten minutes later as she passes his cubicle again.

"Is it signed?" he asks hopefully, turning the bouquet around until he finds the envelope.

"I didn't read it," Sandy says, sounding a little indignant. "But I doubt it."

Jared frowns, opening the envelope and pulling the card out. "Why would you doubt it?"

Sandy shrugs, peering over his shoulder. "Can't tell you."

Jared glares at her and really, he's sick of all this secrecy. He opens the card and reads. 

_'I hope you like roses, Jared. Happy Valentine's Day!'_ , it simply says and Jared groans in frustration.

"That's a guy's handwriting, right?" he asks.

Sandy grins. "Could be," she says vaguely. 

Jared silently takes back every nice thing he's ever thought about Sandy.

+

By the next day, Jared's come up with a plan. He's gonna flirt with ever male co-worker to find out who actually reacts to his flirting and voilà, he'll know who likes him and sent the roses. It's not the cleverest plan, but Jared doesn't have a lot to go on and he figures it's enough.

"That shirt looks really good on you," he tells Tom with a smile. 

"Umm, thanks?" Tom says.

"It really brings out your eyes. You have really beautiful eyes, man, anybody ever tell you that?"

"My wife?" Tom replies unsurely and oh, right. He's married.

"Right. Yeah. Hope you two are happy together," Jared rushes out cheerfully. He claps Tom on the shoulder and turns around and leaves.

Next is Misha. 

"Hey, what's up?" Jared asks, leaning against Misha's desk. They're friends, sort of. They have drinks together sometimes and Misha's a little weird, but he's nice and not too bad looking.

"This and that," Misha replies vaguely.

"Cool," Jared says with a nod. "Hey, wanna go for a couple of drinks tonight after work?"

"Maybe tomorrow. I've got plans with this hot girl I met last week. She said she’s bringing her friend along, too," Misha says with a wide smirk, wiggling his eyebrows. 

Jared silently crosses Misha off the list he has in his head. If Misha was his secret admirer he probably wouldn't tell Jared about the threesome he has planned for the night.

Later that day, Jared bumps into Michael Rosenbaum in the hallway. He searches for something to say before blurting out, "The bald head really suits you."

"Thanks, man," Mike replies with a wide grin. "You wanna touch it? You totally can. It feels awesome."

Jared shakes his head quickly and mumbles some excuse before fleeing. If Mike sent him the flowers, he doesn't want to know.

+

Jared is leaning against the cabinets in their office's kitchen, sipping his first coffee of the day. He's gotten up late and didn't have the time to get one on his way to work and the coffee here is this disgusting, dark slush but it's better than nothing.

He's almost done when Jensen comes in. He glances at Jared, mutters a hi and then almost rushes to the coffee machine, busying himself with pouring himself a cup.

Jensen Ackles is kind of a dick. Okay, he seems pretty nice to other people, if a little reserved, but for some reason Jensen seems to absolutely despise Jared. He started working for the company four months ago and Jared went out of his way to be nice and make him feel welcome the first few days, but Jensen never more than grunted at him or mumbled words under his breath. Jared's not sure what Jensen's problem is, except he apparently doesn't appreciate people being nice to him. Jared wouldn't care (okay, wouldn't care is maybe a little exaggerated, because Jared hates it when people dislike him, especially when it's completely unjustified), if it wasn't for the fact that Jensen's impossibly good-looking.

Jensen turns back around with his mug of coffee and takes a big gulp, before making a noise of disgust and grimacing.

"It's better if you put in lots of sugar and cream so you can't taste the coffee," Jared says, because he's nothing if not persistent. 

"I drink my coffee black," Jensen mumbles, not looking at Jared and leaves. 

"Whatever," Jared mutters under his breath. "Asshole."

He finishes his coffee and goes back to work. Sandy stops at his desk at lunch break, smiling widely.

"Hey, Jared. Wanna have lunch with me?" she asks.

Jared's more than happy to go with her. Jensen is talking to Misha in the cubicle across from him and he keeps giving Jared these looks when he thinks Jared isn't paying attention and quickly turning away whenever Jared looks up. He's probably coming up with ways to kill Jared in his head or something.

Sandy and he get sandwiches from a nearby deli and sit on a bench in the park across from their office building.

"Any luck with finding out who sent you the roses yet?" Sandy asks with a grin.

"No. Because you won't tell me," Jared huffs. "It's not Misha, Tom or Mike. And least I really hope it's not Mike."

"It's not," Sandy assures. "Mike's sleeping with Kristin."

"What?" Jared gapes at her. Kristin is kind of hot, for a girl.

Sandy shrugs. "Don't ask me. Apparently he can be really charming when he wants to be."

Jared snorts and takes another bite of his sandwich. "So, yeah, it's not one of those three," he continues. "I'm ruling out David, because the guy is old enough to be my dad and that'd just be gross. And Jeff looks after everything in a skirt, so I don't think he's suddenly batting for the other team."

Sandy looks at him expectantly, like she's waiting for something more to come.

"That's it?" Jared says tentatively.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" she asks.

Jared thinks it over and then shakes his head. "Nope," he finally says. "It wasn't a woman after all, was it? That'd be kinda weird. Everyone knows I'm gay."

Sandy huffs and bunches the wrapping paper of her sandwich into a ball, throwing it into a nearby trashcan. "You're hopeless," she sighs and gets up. Jared follows after her.

"What? I didn't forget anyone," he exclaims but Sandy just shakes her head.

+

Jared glances from cubicle to cubicle, mentally chickening off everyone on his list of potential admirers. Tom, Mike, Sophia, Misha, Jensen, Sandy, Kristin, David, Jeff. There's nobody he forgot.

He does another round, this time adding the reason why they're eliminated, just to make sure.

Tom, married. Mike, just no and apparently into Kristin (Jared's still baffled about that). Sophia, woman. Misha, into threesome and over-sharing this information. Jensen. Sandy, woman. Kristin, woman -

Jared halts and looks back at Jensen's cubicle. No. Fucking. Way.

He sits still for all of five minutes, running the possibility through his head again and again. It doesn't get any less weird. And it would be kind of awesome and Jensen is probably beautiful all over, if the broad shoulders, muscular thighs, and perfect ass that his clothes definitely aren't hiding are anything to go by, but Jared's refusing to entertain that idea just yet. He doesn't want to get his hopes up, because he's been carrying this secret crush around with him for _months_ and what if it's not Jensen? Because Jensen clearly doesn't like Jared. At all.

He gets up, trying to look casual, and stops at Sandy's desk. "I need to talk to you," he says.

Sandy looks up, blinking and shrugging. "Okay."

"Not here," he hisses and glances around. "Can you take a break?"

Sandy looks at her desk and sighs, getting up. "This better be good, Padalecki. I need to have this report done by the end of the day."

Jared shrugs and waits until they're outside in the hallway, far enough away for nobody to hear him. "Is it Jensen?" he asks.

Sandy gives him an exasperated look. "Guess there's a brain under all the pretty hair after all."

"Jensen?" Jared says again, puzzled. "Jensen likes me?"

"Duh," Sandy mutters. "You really didn't notice? He hasn't been able to have a coherent conversation with you since he started here. Come on, Jared, he almost flees the room every time you give him that dimpled smile of yours."

"I thought he hated me," Jared argues.

Sandy sighs. "Why are most men so oblivious?" she asks and then holds up her hands when Jared opens his mouth. "Don't answer that. I need to get back to work now. Just…ask him out or something and put him out of his misery."

"What if I don't wanna go out with him?" Jared asks with a frown.

Sandy gives him a look. "Please," she says. "Even I wouldn't say no to him and I'm happily married."

"Whatever," Jared mutters.

+

"Football," Jared blurts out the next time he catches Jensen alone, by the water cooler in the hallway.

"What?" Jensen asks, looking confused.

"Do you like football?" Jared clarifies.

"Umm, yeah?" Jensen says and turns his attention back to the water cooler.

"Do you wanna watch the game with me this Sunday? There's a bar near my place I sometimes go to."

Jensen turns back to him, looking at anything but Jared's face and scratches the back of his neck. "You wanna watch football with me?" he asks.

Jared groans. "It's not the best idea for a date, you're right. We can do the whole traditional dinner and movies thing instead? Or something a little more fun. Do you play mini golf?" he rushes out. "I suck at it, but it's a good idea for a first date, right?"

Jensen looks at him then, his lips twitching into a small smile and damn, he just has the most gorgeous, green eyes ever. "Football is good," he says.

+

Jensen, it turns out, really is beautiful all over. And he looks even more beautiful spread out on Jared's white sheets, legs splayed and cheeks flushed and his chest heaving.

But he looks best in the morning, with pillow creases on his cheek and mussed hair, sipping the coffee Jared made and smiling softly.


End file.
